Schools across England, as well as the Department for Education, Ofsted and Ofqual are facing major communications issues amid an ongoing Microsoft outage. The issues began on Thursday evening, and are understood to be affecting a range of the tech giant’s popular services globally including Outlook, Teams and its AI tool Copilot. Schools watchdog Ofsted said on Friday morning it “cannot currently receive emails”. It asked people not to send emails to Ofsted or use its online forms during the outage, urging them to instead get in touch by phone for “urgent matters”. Ofsted receives tens of thousands of complaints each year about schools, early years provision, and other settings. It also deals with hundreds of complaints from schools about inspections. The Department for Education, like many government departments and agencies, is understood to use Outlook email system. The department confirmed on Friday it is experiencing issues sending and receiving emails. Schools hit Many school systems are also understood to be experiencing issues. Wilton CE Primary School in Salisbury posted on Facebook to inform parents the outage “will affect our communication today” and asking parents to get in touch by phone if needed. “However, in a tech world, our teaching is practical, innovative and fun and your children will have no idea,” it continued, adding: “Have a wonderful Friday 13th!” Caterham High School in London posted an update on its website saying the school’s email system “is currently not working”, adding: “We are monitoring the situation and hope normal services will be restored as soon as possible.” North Cestrian School, an academy free school in Manchester, posted a safeguarding update on its website urging parents to telephone the school to report pupil absences, amid the outage. Ofqual issues Exams watchdog Ofqual also confirmed it is “currently experiencing issues” with its complaints service, which handles complaints and concerns about exams boards and qualifications. It said this was “related to the global Microsoft outage”. “We are currently unable to receive complaints, whistleblowing and malpractice submissions,” said an update on its website. It too urged those who need to get in touch urgently to make contact by phone. Meanwhile school leaders’ union ASCL said its support hotline for members has also been affected. It anticipate calls to the union’s member support hotline “will increase as a result of this outage”, and thanked members for patience. ASCL said on Friday morning its staff were unable to access Microsoft Outlook to send and receive emails. “This will also affect emails you may have sent to us overnight, and any meetings arranged on Teams today,” it added. “We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will keep you informed as the situation develops.” According to the BBC, Microsoft said around 9.30am on Thursday it is seeing “early signs of stabilisation” but services have “not yet returned to normal levels” and remained “variable”. This is a breaking story. Updates to follow.